In the morning they find this magical food on the ground. Mah zeh? - What's this?So they called it mahn.

Then Moshe tells them, you're going to have to collect it and use it up every day.

On the fifth day, Moshe tells them: Tomorrow, Day 6, I want everyone to
collect double. That way on the seventh day (Shabbat) you won't have to
go to work. "And don't bother going out on Shabbat because there won't
be any mahn on the ground."

So the story goes that everyone followed the directions and collected double on Friday.

But some trouble-makers threw some of their mahn on the ground Friday afternoon. They wanted to make Moses look like a liar.

But the birds took care of the problem.

They came in and ate all those crumbs of mahn. Moshe's (and God's) reputation was safe.

So to honor the birds, we throw them some bread crumbs before this parsha every year.

Which leads to Question #2 for your table: Collecting a bit of
miracle-food doesn't sound that hard, in fact it sounds like a good bit
of exercise. Why take a day off? Even more important: why enforce it?

PS - I recently learned that Quakers have a custom of calling the days
by their Biblical names only, avoiding the pagan names of Sunday,
Monday, etc. So today isn't Friday, it's the sixth day. In fact, this is
how Israelis speak.

But then in 2012, Grey Poupon decided it was time to reintroduce their brand to a new generation.

So they of course created a Facebook page.

But unlike every other Facebook page in the universe, Grey Poupon did not go for unlimited "likes".

They called their page, The Society of Good Taste.

They required an application to become a friend of Grey Poupon. Their
computer would analyze your own profile and scores you based on your
posts, your timeline, your other "likes" and even your grammar.

Now, Gigi kept this small crystal dish in the living room full of Hershey's Kisses.

The holy grail for of every child who entered that house was to sneak
into the living room and extract a Kiss without being detected.

The problem was that if you were not exceedlingly careful, one slip of
your hand and crystal touching crystal would reverberate, giving you
away.

But even so, there was always the chance that she didn't hear it.

So that particular day I had, as usual, sought and obtained my prize.

But back in the kitchen the worst of my fears was realized:

"Did you take a candy from the living room?"

"No," I lied.

"I hope you're telling me the truth! You must never tell a lie! When
your father was five, he once told a lie. We called it 'fibbing'. And
you know what I did? I washed his mouth out with soap! And he never lied
after that."

On the spot, I resolved never to fib again, at least not to Gigi.

But she continued: "It's not just lies that are bad, any bad language is
bad. You should always say nice things! And truthful things. Don't use
bad words or tell lies like you might hear other children do."

I frankly didn't know what she meant by bad words at the time, but the lesson stuck.

Later I learned that her lesson has a source in Torah. The rabbis call it lashon naki - clean language.

The idea is to go out of your way to use terms like "washroom" etc. instead of their more explicit synonyms.

Even if it requires more syllables.

Don't say "dirty", say "unclean".

2 questions for your table:

1. What are some common words that people use that could be said with a lashon naki?
2. What about swearing (cursing) - have swear words become so common that they could be considered lashon naki?

Someone asked me if making January-first new year's resolutions is "OK" for a Jewish person.

Second question: What do you think was bothering them?

Why not make resolutions?

Well, the thinking goes, because we already had our new year back in September. Remember?

For your table: What do you think the rabbi told them?

Answer: No, it's not OK - if you're just "making a resolution".

What we should be doing is making a resolution every day - not just once or twice a year.

Making a daily resolution and holding yourself accountable for it is a very, very Jewish thing to do.

So if the first week of 2018 inspires you to do so - fabulous.

But how are you going to hold yourself accountable?

Here's a suggestion (and the background to today's title): when you wake
up every day and want to make your resolution - or when you go to bed
and are making a resolution for tomorrow - make it out loud. Let your
ears hear your words. This is a meditative technique to get the idea
deeper into your brain.

Shabbat Shalom

PS
- Thank you to all who sent in their generous support at the end of
2017. If you are interested in starting 2018 with a mitzvah, please
consider supporting this email and JSL's overall mission, by clicking here.